Welcome to Part 3 of our Website Traffic Blueprint article series, where we show you how to turn a site into an automated web traffic generating machine using the WordPress CMS.
In Part 1 of this series, we provided an overview of the process, and explained why using an expertly configured WordPress site is the key to automating traffic to your site …
(With an expertly configured WordPress site, all you have to do to automatically bring traffic is add fresh content on a regular basis!)
In Part Two, we focused on the setup phase. We explained the best way to start if you don’t have a web presence yet, how to set everything up if you already have a website, and what to do if your existing website was built using WordPress.
(In Part 2 we show you where to set up WordPress on your domain)
In this article, we discuss the configuration phase of the traffic system. You will learn how a WordPress site should be configured to drive visitors automatically when you begin posting fresh content on a consistent basis to your website.
WordPress Traffic Automation System – Configuration
Being able to attract more visitors to one’s website is often cited by most website owners as their greatest challenge online. With competition becoming progressively tougher businesses are exploring any opportunity they can to improve their performance online.
Having the ability to automatically generate traffic on demand is a huge advantage. For businesses, an expertly configured website gives WordPress users a flying start as soon as their website is launched.
The Configuration Phase Is The Difference
There is a significant difference between an expertly configured WordPress site and a website that has been professionally set up by an expert website builder but not necessarily configured to its fullest advantage.
Here is a simple way to describe the differences:
An expertly configured WordPress site gives you a professional web presence with an automated online business marketing process!
(An expertly configured website gives you a web presence with an automated online business marketing process!)
Not only are more steps needed to build and integrate an automated online business marketing system into your website, it also takes a special kind of expertise.
To illustrate this here’s a joke.
Ludicrous Or Fair? You Decide …
Everything was running smoothly in the widget factory when production suddenly stopped.
As no one could figure out what went wrong, the plant manager decided to call in an expert to fix the problem.
Shortly after arriving, the expert headed immediately towards the control box. After staring at the wiring diagrams for what seemed like about 5 minutes, the expert then took out a teeny-weeny hammer and made a gentle tap about 2 inches from the bottom-right corner of the control unit.
Immediately, everything returned to normal.
The floor manager was greatly relieved as he thanked the expert, who left as quickly as he had arrived.
A couple of days after resolving the incident, the manager received an invoice for the sum of $5,000.
The factory manager dialed the expert, demanding to know why they were expected to pay such an exorbitant fee for so little time spent delivering such a minimal amount of work and then requested an itemized invoice before hanging up.
The next day, a bill of payment arrived and was placed on the manager’s desk. Upon opening it, this is what he saw:
The #1 challenge most businesses face online is being able to drive new traffic consistently to their sites.
How much money did the plant stand to lose when production ground to a halt and no one on the business had the expertise to fix it? Did the expert not have every right to demand fair compensation for investing years developing the knowledge, skills and expertise that allowed him to immediately avert a crisis?
Similarly, if you could have a WP website or blog set up so all you had to do is publish new content and Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and dozens of other web properties would be immediately notified, how much time and money would this save you?
(How much better would your business be if you could automate the process of driving traffic to your site?)
Although experts often make difficult solutions look simple, it rarely is that simple or easy when you try to work things out.
Expertly configuring a WordPress site is more than adding some pages with content and configuring a few internal settings. It requires knowing where to tap! In other words, knowing things such as:
- Which programs need to be installed to get desired functionalities on your site.
- Which third-party services you need to set up and activate to get specific results
- Which internal and external settings you need to configure to ensure that everything will work to plan, etc.
(Generating new traffic automatically with WordPress is a process that requires expertise)
Although this stage of the WordPress traffic automation system may not seem so technically challenging, it can be quite involved and complicated. The reason why is because it’s not as simple as installing and configuring a piece of software, tweaking some settings in your admin area … it’s all of this and so much more.
Expertly configuring your website is a complex process that involves your web server, your website or blog, and various third-party sites …
(Expertly configuring your website involves more than just configuring some WordPress settings)
If all the steps involved in the configuration process were to be flowcharted, it would look like this …
(A simplified diagram of the activities involved in the configuration process)
Let’s examine these areas in more detail.
Configuring The Server
We’re not talking here about the process of configuring your webhosting account for site installation purposes. What we are talking about, is configuring settings and options in your web server specifically for handling all web traffic …
(During the configuration stage, your webhosting account settings need to be fine-tuned for handling both good and bad traffic)
Not all web traffic is beneficial traffic. Some of the traffic you will attract will be unwanted traffic like bot spam, security threats, bot-hacking attempts, etc.
This part of the configuration process, therefore, is all about planning for both bad and good traffic and adjusting settings in your server accordingly. This could include looking at things like implementing server-level spam protection and threat prevention, to configuring your domain and email redirections, etc …
(Have you configured your hosting control panel settings for handling things like emails, page errors, etc?)
After checking your server settings and configuring these (if required), the next step of the configuration phase is to set up various third-party sites or online services.
External Services
The purpose of adding external sites is that all of your content will get published to a central location (your site) and from there, it will get syndicated automatically to other components of your traffic system, or notify traffic-related web properties and services.
Once these external sites have been added to your traffic system, content linked back to your website will get automatically syndicated to these platforms, indexed by search engines and shared to other social networks, even to users of the platform itself. Your content and site will benefit from increased exposure online, helping you tap into a new audience and traffic source.
Some of these external sites and services will need to have accounts set up before configuring your WordPress site to help save time and some will need to be done later, during the automation phase.
For example, you will want to set up the following accounts before configuring your site’s settings:
Google Webmasters
(Google Webmasters)
Google Webmasters lets you inform Google about your site’s pages, submit XML sitemaps for faster page indexing, and provides site owners with a range of important data, SEO tools, and reports about their website.
Once your account is with Google are set up, use the details to integrate and automate web traffic-related settings and notifications in WordPress (e.g. using plugins like Yoast SEO – see further below) and other applications.
Google Analytics
(Google Analytics)
Google Analytics lets you improve your site’s performance, SEO, marketing efforts, sales conversions, and more, by tracking all user engagement, pages visited, keywords searched for, organic referrals, etc.
After setting up your Once you have set up Google Analytics, tracking code can be added to WordPress using a simple plugin and automatically sent to various other useful applications.
Bing Data And Tools
(Bing Webmaster Tools)
Bing Webmaster Tools is similar to Google Search Console. After setting up your account and entering site data with Bing Webmaster Tools, use your details to automate traffic-related settings in WordPress using plugins like Yoast SEO and other applications.
WordPress.com
(WordPress.com)
As explained in Part Two, WordPress offers users the option of a hosted vs self-hosted website. We recommended choosing the self-hosted WordPress option if you plan to grow a professional web presence.
WordPress.com (the hosted option), however, provides a number of useful tools, which can be accessed by various WordPress plugins. We recommend setting up an account at WordPress.com, therefore, and we’ll show you how to integrate these features into your automated traffic generation system in the next installment of this article series.
Social Media Accounts
(Syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and attract new visitors to your site)
You will need to have already set up your various social accounts in order to configure these as part of your traffic generation system.
After setting up and configuring everything, you will be able to syndicate your content automatically to your social media sites and get new traffic to your site.
You should have accounts and profiles set up with all of the popular social networks – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.
There are lots of social bookmarking sites you can set up accounts with and post your content to. You don’t need to go crazy, just pick those that will work well with your system and/or content sharing tools.
(You can post your content to many social sites. Image source ShareThis.com)
Additional Solutions, Content Aggregators, Etc.
There are a number of online platforms and content aggregators that can serve as second-tier sources of traffic. Some are free or provide free accounts, and some are more suitable for enterprise-level applications.
For example, here is a content aggregator that allows you to add your WordPress blog feed …
RebelMouse
(RebelMouse – Publishing platform for distributed content)
RebelMouse is an aggregator for your social profiles and RSS feeds. Your content displays in a Pinterest-like format and visitors can follow your own RebelMouse page.
There are various platforms that can be added to your own web traffic system. Please feel free to contact us if you need assistance exploring some of these, or to discuss a configuration plan to suit your needs.
After you have configured your web server and set up external site accounts, it’s time to configure your WordPress site’s settings.
WordPress Site Configuration
The first step in configuring your WordPress site for traffic is to ensure that your global settings have been correctly set up.
Let’s go over some key areas.
Global Settings
By default, all WordPress installations include a Settings section that allows you to configure your site’s main settings …
(WordPress settings section)
General Settings
Fields like Site Title and Tagline can influence your site’s SEO, search results, etc …
(Global Settings – General Settings Section)
Writing
The Writing Settings area contains an important and frequently overlooked automated traffic notification system …
(Settings Menu – Writing Settings Area)
As described in this section,
When you publish a new post, WordPress automatically notifies the following site update services …
Unless you or your webmaster have intentionally configured your settings to discourage search engines from indexing your site, then your site will automatically notify the list of services entered into the Update Services box
By default, this section displays only one entry …
(Update Services – A Powerful Traffic Feature Of WordPress)
You can notify dozens of update services automatically with WordPress …
(Notify dozens of update services automatically!)
Download A Comprehensive List Of Ping Services For Your WordPress Site!
Click the link below to download a comprehensive list of reliable and authoritative ping services for your WordPress site or blog:
Download A List Of Ping Services For Your WordPress Site
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Note: If you need help setting up the list of ping services on your site, we recommend using a professional web services provider. You can find professional WordPress service providers in our WordPress Services Directory.
Reading Settings
This section affects how visitors will see your content when they visit your home page and blog pages.
The syndication settings on this page can influence traffic. For example, your choice to display the full content vs summaries of your post, affects how your content shows up in RSS feeds and blog post digests, and could impact someone’s decision to explore your site further, and whether or not they will visit your blog to get the rest of the content from excerpts, or read the content in full without the need to click through to your site.
The most important setting here as far as traffic is concerned is whether the Search Engine Visibility feature is enabled or not.
Typically, you want search engines to visit your site. Leaving the box unchecked allows your site to instantly ping your list of update services when new posts get published (see Writing Settings above). Unless there is a specific reason why search engines should not visit your site, leave this box unchecked …
(Global Settings – Reading Settings)
Discussion Settings
Although discussion settings are mostly concerned with how users engage with content on your site, you have the option to allow notifications to sites linked to from your content, and to allow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks). This can work for you, but it can also drive bad traffic in the form of SPAM comments …
(WordPress Settings – Discussion Settings)
Permalinks
Permalinks allow your site to display posts with search engine-friendly URLs …
(Settings Menu – Permalink Settings Section)
The examples below show some of the options for configuring your site’s SEO-friendly URLs …
(Configuring post permalinks)
To learn more about setting up permalinks in WordPress, go here: Setting Up WordPress Permalinks
Configuring WordPress Plugin Settings For Traffic Generation
WordPress provides users with thousands of plugins that can add just about every type of functionality to your website, including traffic generation.
Here are some types of plugin categories that affect traffic and plugin examples
Blog Defender WordPress Security Plugin
Once again, it’s important to configure your website for handling both good traffic and bad traffic. No website is completely safe from being hacked.
(Security Plugins stop bad traffic from causing your website harm)
Security plugins like Blog Defender help to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and bots.
Go here for more details:
WordPress SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO
WordPress SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your website …
(SEO plugins help drive more traffic by improving the search engine friendliness of your website)
A plugin like Yoast SEO (previously known as WordPress SEO by Yoast) can improve your website’s SEO. Once properly configured, the Yoast SEO plugin not only makes your web pages easier for search engines like Google and Bing to index, it also gives you control over how your content is displayed to Google’s search results and social media pages, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
WordPress Social Sharing Plugins
Allowing visitors to share your content with their social networks can help to increase traffic to your site, especially if you publish content that adds real value to readers.
(You can add social features to your site easily using WordPress plugins)
WordPress users can easily add social sharing buttons to their website using free or inexpensive plugins.
Most social plugins let you specify which social sites visitors can share your content to, embed social buttons into your content, set up default post messages, display/hide share counters (e.g. number of likes), etc. Some social sharing plugins even allow you to set up protected content areas on your site which visitors can unlock by liking your page.
WordPress Traffic Generation Theme Settings – Configuration
As well as configuring various plugins, many WordPress themes also include features that help grow your traffic.
For example, in addition to options and settings for configuring the layout and design of your site, some themes also give you options for improving SEO and site linking structure for better indexing, add tracking, social sharing buttons, etc …
(Many themes like Graphene (a highly customizable free theme) can be configured for improved traffic results)
With many themes, adding social sharing buttons to your site is as easy as clicking a button …
(Many WordPress themes come with built-in social sharing features that can be easily enabled on with the click of a button)
Configuring Other WordPress Areas
Last (but by no means least) in the WordPress traffic configuration process, are the elements that need to be configured outside of the global settings.
These include:
Website Compliance Pages
Once again, when preparing your site for an increase in visitor numbers, it’s important to plan not only for how to deal with bad and good traffic but also for all the situations that can damage your business when more and more people start finding and visiting your website.
If you are making money online, you need to make sure that your website is compliant with legal requirements of government agencies that regulate business online.
(Does Your Website Comply With All Legal Requirements?)
If you need help adding legal pages to WordPress, see this article:
Post Tags And Post Categories
Categories and tags help improve traffic by allowing search engines to better understand and index your web pages.
(WordPress post categories help search engines index your website, which helps to increase traffic.)
As we recommend in this article, it’s best to discuss and set up your website’s tags and categories during the Website Planning Stage.
When looking at ways to automate and improve traffic, you will want to review and make sure that your site’s post categories and tags have been set up correctly to deliver optimal results.
Add A Site Map
A visitor site map that lists all of your pages and posts is not only a useful navigation tool, it can also help external applications find more of your website content …
(A site map is not just great for visitors, but for traffic too!)
An HTML site map and an XML sitemap are different things. Only search engine bots can understand XML sitemaps. Although Google will index your site just using an XML sitemap (which a plugin like Yoast SEO will create for you – see earlier section), making it easier for visitors to find more pages on your site can result in increased traffic.
Your WordPress 404 Error Page
When online visitors type in the wrong URL into their web browser or click on hyperlinks pointing to an incorrect destination on your website, they are greeted with an error – page not found message (known as a 404 page) …
(A WordPress 404 Not Found page)
A 404 Error Page can redirect confused visitors to your functional web pages …
(Configuring your 404 Not Found error page allows you to redirect web traffic that may otherwise be lost.)
Although a 404 error page can be set up on your server, there are plugins for WordPress that let you easily configure your 404 page inside your WordPress admin.
WordPress Traffic Blueprint: Configuration Phase – Summary
Once you have your website expertly configured and fully set up, all you need to do to drive more traffic is publish great content regularly.
The process of expertly configuring your WordPress site, however, is quite involved , requiring the configuration and integration of various components and external web properties …
(Traffic Blueprint – Configuration Phase Checklist)
The expertise required to perform the configuration phase of the traffic automation process typically takes many web developers months to acquire.
Once you have configured your WordPress site, the next step is to automate as much of the process as you can. This step is addressed in the next section of our series.
This is the end of Section Three
To read more, click on the link below:
This tutorial is part of a comprehensive article series designed to help you learn how to grow your business online inexpensively with a WordPress website or blog and proven marketing methods that are easy and quick to implement.
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